The joys and dangers of Ebay pipes

[OC Richard]

I will throw this out here, as this listing contains a number of my pet-peeves of pipes on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Professiona....c100010.m2109

The things that annoy me / I look at as red-flags:
- seller does not say much about the pipes
- few pictures, pictures are from a distance, closeups are fuzzy/poor quality
- use of the word "Professional" in describing the pipes
- "sold as seen," especially when you haven't shown much at all
- "no refunds"

Exactly right on every point!

And his listing originally was even worse, it had one blurry far-away photo and the only description was "sold as seen". What?!

I messaged him right away saying that if he wanted to increase the chance of his pipes selling he would either have to have more photos, or more description, or better yet both. I asked him if he knew who made the pipes.

He said "it's in the listing".

I said that in fact his listing did not say anything about who made the pipes, and I asked him again.

He repeated "it's in the listing".

This time I copied and pasted the listing, and finally he became aware that he hadn't mentioned the maker.

He updated the listing with the maker mentioned and a couple more photos, but still I doubt that he will sell that set at that price.

I'd never heard of Stirling Bagpipes, but if it's true that the maker apprenticed under Nigel Richard (who recently passed away) then he should know what he's about.

https://www.stirlingbagpipes.com/about